Cannes Film Festival 2024: Our top picks and biggest disappointments so far

euronews (in English)

The 77th Cannes Film Festival has reached its midway mark. Here are our thoughts so far, including the disappointments, the top contenders, and the hidden gems.

Transcript

00:00 [Music]

00:09 Hello, we're nearly halfway through the 77th Cannes Film Festival

00:14 and what a festival it's been so far. So many keenly anticipated films, some of

00:20 which have hit the high notes but quite a few have hit the low notes. Telling us

00:23 more about it now, David Morricone, my colleague. David, as I

00:26 said it's halfway through. Lots of suspense, lots of keenly

00:30 awaited films, among them Megalopolis, Furiosa. Let's look back before we

00:36 look forward. What did you make of them? I mean it's been a good festival so far,

00:40 I think that's worth saying because a lot of critics at the moment are saying

00:44 it's nothing compared to last year and I disagree. I think the the program is

00:48 so much more varied. There are genre films, we've had musicals,

00:52 we've had action films, we've had romance. There's been something for

00:56 everyone. Now with the big hitters so far, I think

00:59 it's been a little bit disappointing. Furiosa, the Mad Max sequel to George

01:04 Miller's 2015 film Fury Road, didn't do it for me. It was one of

01:09 those prequels which no one really needed and oh the

01:14 Coppola, yeah Megalopolis. It's a mess,

01:19 it's a complete and utter mess and I know that there are some who are saying

01:22 that it's going to be a cult classic, that no you haven't understood it and

01:26 it's so misunderstood and it's this work of

01:29 genius or something like that. It's 10 films rolled into one

01:32 and it is this hubristic folly that just goes absolutely everywhere and

01:38 nowhere at the same time. I mean what did you think?

01:41 I did see it with you and I am still mixed or maybe very very much

01:46 confused after three quarters. You coward. Yeah what can I tell you?

01:50 I wouldn't say it was brilliant for sure. It had so much in it,

01:55 far too much probably to contain, you know, to not have a nosebleed.

02:01 But why I'm still confused because I'm still sort of thinking, did I miss

02:04 something? Did I not understand it? Is there some sort of

02:08 super message from another world? There was nothing to miss. I don't think

02:12 that there was and I think people are like

02:14 bending themselves into pretzels over this, trying to see

02:18 oh what could we have missed and oh what does this symbolism mean and oh was he

02:22 trying to say that? It's rubbish. It just is. I'm sorry and

02:25 like I just think it's time to just say okay

02:28 you invite all these titans, that's fine, but just because they're a

02:31 titan, just because they've directed The Godfather and The Conversation and

02:34 Apocalypse Now doesn't mean that the new film has to be

02:37 anything more than it actually is, which is naff.

02:41 Well let's move swiftly on because there have been so

02:45 many more things there that we've seen over the last few days.

02:48 What particularly has stood out for you? Emilia Perez,

02:52 the Jaco Diaz. Now this is, I mean, Jaco Diaz is no stranger to the festival.

02:57 He's been here several times in competition. He won the Palme d'Or in

03:00 2015 for D-Pan and I was not expecting this because

03:05 after a while you get the impression, okay you know what a certain filmmaker's

03:08 going to be giving you or what to expect. This is completely out there. The

03:13 biggest swing for the fences and at 72 years old

03:17 it's just something to celebrate and it's this kind of

03:20 narco-musical, trans-musical as well about a drug cartel boss who is seeking

03:28 to become a woman through gender reassignment surgery.

03:31 Sounds like it's got something for everybody in it in that description.

03:33 Without a doubt and really just I came out of there going I want something

03:38 different from these films and I just got it

03:40 and it is for my mind the the front runner for the Palme d'Or this year and

03:44 it could be Jaco Diaz's second Palme d'Or. Well let's talk

03:47 now as we are at the halfway stage about some of the things that you're

03:50 looking forward to this week. You know when we last spoke we mentioned that

03:54 there was this shadow of the strike. There's been no sign of

03:57 that from disgruntled workers. That sort of the threatened #MeToo report

04:01 is still bubbling in the air, still at the halfway stage but looking

04:05 at the films and perhaps away from the quasi, you know

04:08 what are you looking forward to? Now this year there's actually been quite a lot

04:11 of horror or horror tinged films in the programs. Now you've had

04:17 The Girl and the Needle which is this historical film which really does kind

04:22 of lean very heavily into thriller and very horror aspects and

04:26 coming up there's the new David Cronenberg The Shroud and certainly one

04:29 which we're seeing tonight called The Substance.

04:32 From recent reports, little rumors heard here and there, apparently it's

04:36 incredibly violent, incredibly intense and just an absolute

04:41 you know gut punch to the stomach. So fingers crossed on that one. One of

04:45 course which I'm looking forward to is the film by Mohamed Razulov,

04:50 The Seed of the Sacred Fig. It's impossible not to talk about it

04:54 without you know mentioning what's going on around the film. Mohamed Razulov

04:58 recently fled from Iran to avoid a very lengthy prison sentence, eight years.

05:04 The longest a filmmaker has been given and lashings as well.

05:09 The Iranian court has described him as an enemy of the state

05:12 and a security risk and now we don't know whether he'll actually be making it

05:16 here to the festival but his films I'm thinking about There

05:20 Is No Evil which won the Golden Bear was quite a knockout and

05:25 his particular form of social commentary,

05:28 his particular form of criticism with regards to the oppressive Iranian

05:32 regime is always something that not only A)

05:36 needs to be listened to and needs to be in competition but B)

05:39 really cinematically just really just hits home.

05:44 This is it.

05:48 The moment of truth.

05:51 Here at the festival this year was Yorgos Lanthimos. Straight a year

05:57 maybe not to the date but you know Poor Things premiered in Venice

06:01 and won the Golden Lion there and now he's back. He's back with an anthology

06:05 film again starring Emma Stone and Willem Dafoe who were both in

06:10 Poor Things and I really liked it. What did you think?

06:13 I thought it was absolutely fantastic as well.

06:16 I love the fact that it was something again completely different perhaps

06:19 from Poor Things and perhaps some of his other films. Great performances.

06:24 You know there have been claims that you know not

06:27 only just levelled against him from this film or from his previous films of

06:30 you know he's a misogynistic director but you know I think he's just

06:34 exploring human relationships and it's perhaps

06:38 does it a disservice to perhaps focus just on that

06:42 because there are so many things in there and it's a really really really

06:46 funny film as well. Oh absolutely yeah and it does this kind of anthology film

06:50 in a very interesting way I thought in a little bit like

06:53 Yorgos Lanthimos Greek weird wave does the Twilight Zone

06:57 and I loved it.

07:01 Isn't it wonderful?

07:06 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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